Who is he?
His original name was Ghantous Al Haddad. He was the son of Georges bin Ghantous from Abey, a village in the West (Mount Lebanon), and Hind bint Assaf Salim from nearby Kfarshima. He was born on July 1, 1859 and grew up in his father's village, Abey. He was later described as being of medium height, with a radiant face, white skin, blond hair, a handsome face, soft hands, bulging eyes, smiling lips, gentle, and pure of heart.
His education
From his childhood, Ghantous showed signs of intelligence, as he had a broad forehead, a sharp mind, and quick understanding. His parents were keen to enroll him in the American School of Abey, where he completed his primary education (1872 AD). He then moved to the Three Moons Orthodox College in Beirut, where he completed his secondary education. When Mr. Gabriel Chatila, the Metropolitan of Beirut and Lebanon (1870-1901), noticed him, he enrolled him in his seminary school adjacent to the Cathedral of Saint George.
His ordination and promotion
Ghantous donned the monastic schema and was called “Gregory” on December 19, 1877. He was ordained a deacon on August 29, 1879. He was ordained a priest on May 6, 1890. He was appointed a bishop of Tripoli on May 10 of the same year. He was finally made patriarch on June 5, 1906.
He served as a deacon.
After Ghantous served his teacher, Mr. Gabriel, as a writer for four years, since he was sixteen years old, his bishop ordained him a deacon and entrusted him with many church tasks, despite his youth. He took care of establishing the “Al-Hadiyya” newspaper and supervised the printing of the book “The Gospel Trumpet” and “Prayers and Psalms” and worked on translating many sermons and articles from Greek into Arabic, which he published in the “Al-Hadiyya” newspaper. He also established a library in the Metropolitan’s house, where he preserved valuable books and manuscripts, and he represented the Patriarch in the Society of Saint Paul the Apostle. The society advanced, thanks to his efforts, and its members began touring the country, working to spread the culture of faith among the people.
His service as a bishop
Gregory was chosen as Bishop of Tripoli at the age of forty-one, following the death of the late Mr. Sophronius (the carpenter). He led the diocese to the port of brotherhood and reconciliation after the disputes had been prolonged there.
During this period, which lasted for sixteen years of his life, Gregory was interested in establishing the Tripoli Orthodox Brotherhood to care for the needy, establishing a library in the Metropolitan House, and renovating a school in Keftin, which had been closed for some time. He also took care of the Balamand Seminary and brought in outstanding chanters to teach Byzantine chanting there, and provided it with a library and the libraries of the monasteries of Nourieh, Hamatoura, and Keftin with books and manuscripts.
His service as a patriarch
Gregory, of blessed memory, succeeded Patriarch Meletius Doumani after his death. He was forty-seven years old. One of the most notable events during his days was the return of peace to its former course between the See of Antioch on the one hand and the Sees of Constantinople, Jerusalem and Alexandria on the other. The atmosphere had become gloomy and relations between the two parties had been severed after the locals succeeded in bringing Meletius Doumani to the Patriarchate in 1899 without those who had been appointed to it from abroad, in Istanbul and Jerusalem and both together, since 1724.
As Patriarch, Gregory strengthened the schools, especially the Balamand ones, after his predecessor had opened them at the beginning of 1900. He also established the Al-Naama magazine in 1909. He sought to move the wheel of renaissance throughout the Antiochian See and visited many of its regions.
In 1913, Gregory presided over the religious celebrations held in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty’s rule in Russia. Upon his return, he brought a dozen Russian monks and entrusted them with the management of the Mar Elias Shwayya Patriarchal Monastery. The Christians of the region were impressed by the piety, asceticism, gentleness, pure Christian love, and activity of these monks. However, they returned and left Lebanon in 1915 following the First World War.
During this war (1914-1918), the Patriarch’s love and compassion for the poor, the sick, and the oppressed were manifested. He opened the doors of his heart and the Patriarchate to every needy person, regardless of his religion, and he was called “Father of the Poor.” In this regard, he had many achievements, stories, and testimonies that were passed around for a long time and continue to this day.
In the spring of 1920, following the Damascus Conference, which called for the independence of natural Syria and in which the notables and dignitaries pledged allegiance to Faisal as its king, the Patriarch was at the forefront of those who pledged allegiance. When the French prevailed and Faisal was forced to leave Damascus in July of the same year, Gregory was the only one who went out to bid him farewell, out of respect for the covenant and steadfastness to the contract. He said to him: “This hand that pledged allegiance to you will remain faithful to the covenant forever.” King Faisal had no choice but to kiss it, crying.
His prayers, fasting and love
If prayer is the secret and mirror of the believer, then Patriarch Gregory IV, as it seemed to the people of his time, was an excellent man of prayer. We do not have many detailed accounts of this, but only a few examples. It is said that during World War I, on a Cheese Day evening, he met Muslim women complaining of hunger, saying: “We want bread, O father of the poor. We want bread for our hungry children!” He returned to the Patriarchate and ordered that provisions from the Patriarchate be distributed to them. Then he locked himself in, kneeling, and praying between four in the afternoon and eleven at night. When the Patriarchate cook came to him offering to prepare two eggs fried in ghee with a loaf of bread and a piece of candy, he replied, “It is not appropriate for me to eat while others are starving!” Then he ordered that his food be given to the first poor person who passed by the Patriarchate the next day.
One day, the Patriarch was late for a meal, so the cook saved a special portion for him. When he arrived and noticed that what was prepared for him was more delicious than what was served to others, he immediately said: “Give me some of what you served to my brothers!”
Once, when it was time for food, and it was a fasting time, the cook brought him his breakfast. Meanwhile, some children were making a noise in the Patriarchate Square, so he asked what was wrong with them and was told that they were poor and hungry, so he called them in and gave them his food.
It was said about Patriarch Gregory that he prayed without getting tired and fasted without complaining. When his health deteriorated in his old age, he insisted on adhering to his asceticism until the end.
The Patriarch often went around to his entourage asking them to forgive him for what he had done, so that he would not let the sun set on his anger.
He used to wake up the sleeping people in the Patriarchate to perform the early dawn prayer with them.
On the other hand, Patriarch Gregory treated his priests, especially the poor, with great paternal affection. When the needy among them came to him with tattered robes, he would give them the best he had, but he would keep the torn ones for himself, patch them himself and sew his own sandals with his own hands. The Patriarch's entourage was forced, as a precaution, to hide some of his priestly clothes from him so that he would not give them to the needy as well.
During the First World War, Gregory opened the doors of the Patriarchate to everyone, without discrimination. It is said that he borrowed large sums of money to feed the hungry. One of the stories about him in this regard is that he had a diamond cross that was given to him by the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. The Patriarch pawned it with a Jewish goldsmith from Damascus for a thousand Ottoman liras. A wealthy Muslim noticed it, released the pawn, and returned it to the Patriarch. The Patriarch took it and sold it again without anyone knowing about it, and kept a similar one made of glass. The people of the Patriarchate did not know about this until after his death.
The Patriarch used to go around with his deacon and archers, gathering those who were thrown out in the alleys to the Patriarchate and the school opposite it, and he would take care of their support. He often fed them with his own hand.
It is said that when the cholera epidemic broke out and Gregory was the bishop of Tripoli, he did not flee the city but began to visit the sick, console the afflicted, and show compassion to the poor. When his friends urged him to leave, he replied: “My life is no better than that of those who cannot escape the epidemic!”
One day, he was informed that the Patriarchate had run out of flour, except for a bag, which the servants decided to bake and distribute to the Orthodox and no one else. So he gathered them, took a loaf of bread in his hands, turned it over, then looked at them and said: “I did not find any writing on the loaf saying that it was for the Greeks and no one else!” He immediately ordered them to distribute the bread to all the poor without discrimination.
One day, a beggar asked the Patriarch for alms. One of the clerics accompanying him said to him: What is your sect? The Patriarch rebuked him, saying: Would you withhold alms from him if he was of a sect other than yours? Isn’t it enough humiliation for him that he extended his hand to beg and you humiliated him by asking him about his faith?! When he said this, the Patriarch took out some money from his pocket and gave it to him, and he left happily and with a good heart.
The Patriarch was once in Zahle. After the Divine Liturgy, a Druze man approached him and asked for charity. The Patriarch did not have anything to give him, so he apologized and sent him away. The man had hardly gone far when the owner of the house that hosted the Patriarch gave him five gold liras. Gregory called the Druze man and gave him what God had bestowed upon him, saying: God has sent for us and for you!
On the other hand, once, according to what Deacon Theodosius Mutlaq narrated, during the Divine Liturgy and the Patriarch was sitting in his chair, the deacon came out with the Gospel and there was no candle in front of him because there was no one to carry it. So the Patriarch got down from his chair, took a candle and walked with it in front of the deacon while he was carrying the Gospel.
Sleep
Patriarch Gregory IV breathed his last in Souk el Gharb at five o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, December 12, 1928. His health had been deteriorating three days earlier, as the Holy Synod was about to conclude one of its sessions. His last words were said to have been, "I have endured to the end!"
His body was transferred via Beirut to Damascus, where fifty thousand non-Christian Damascene Muslims received him. The artillery fired a hundred and one shots, while the crowds shouted: “Abu al-Faqir, the Patriarch of the Christians and Imam of the Muslims, has died. A great catastrophe has befallen the Arabs!”
King Faisal I of Iraq participated with a hundred knights who received his coffin. A large number of Muslim sheikhs also participated in the funeral.
The Mufti of the Bekaa, Muhammad Amin Qazoun, said over his coffin: “If our religion allowed us to recognize a prophet after Muhammad, I would have said you are him!” It was said that the Muslims wanted to pray over him in the Great Umayyad Mosque.
One of the Damascene Muslim merchants was spraying the paste and shouting at the top of his voice: “This saint supported me and my family throughout the war.”
The body of the Patriarch was buried in the Patriarchs' Cemetery in front of the Mariamite Cathedral.
About the forgotten saints in the Antiochian heritage (*) To Archimandrite Toma Bitar
(*) This biography was based on the following references:
- Rustum, Asad. The Church of the City of God, Great Antioch, Part Three. pp. 326-380.
- The Blessed Trinity Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. Compiled and arranged by the novice Samir Fayyad. Lattakia
- The late Patriarch Gregory IV (Haddad). Unpublished article prepared by Joseph Zeitoun, Patriarchal Records Secretary.
